Natalia BaryshnikovaI think most agree that for business processes, consistency creates enormous value. We all know how much easier it is to manage the complexities and intricacies of sourcing and hiring when everyone executes against the same workflow and process design.
In fact, consistency may often be a primary value of your global brand. For example, you won’t get a gourmet meal at a fast food chain, but successful chains are those where the quality remains uniform and consistent worldwide.
There are, however, some caveats. How consistent should hiring processes be? Let me show you how to determine the optimum level of consistency you should consider for your organization.
Some company leaders want to maintain universal consistency in recruiting and hiring practices because while they may operate globally, teams are mostly centered in one location. Other organization may operate in a more decentralized manner, with differing needs demanding more flexibility for hiring processes.
Which approach should your company adopt?
Focus more on business goals and reliability, less on process itself
After reviewing data on rolling out SmartRecruiters across many global enterprises – plus interviewing many leaders at these organizations – there are a set of advantages and pitfalls strikingly common in making the decision on consistency for hiring processes. Understanding these will help you better evaluate and refine your global talent acquisition strategy.
At SmartRecruiters, our values center on helping organizations meet global business challenges, not simply to adhere to specific processes. The quality of those you hire makes an enormous difference in successfully meeting your goals. If the nature of your organization and your needs calls for varying processes from location to location to acquire the best talent, doing so is a far better option than managing for global consistency simply for the sake of maintaining a uniform process.
Indeed, it’s your business objectives that matter most, not process.
Insights from thousands of recent hires
In some cases, processes are consistent but reliably deliver poor results. You should find the most useful KPIs to evaluate to best optimize the critical balance between local and global control.
Our study of thousands of hires made by our clients reveals that successful companies are those that ask the right questions in deciding how much control to give to unit leaders. I hope you can come to Hiring Success 17 to learn what those questions are and how to determine the answers that meet challenging talent acquisition goals. I look forward to seeing you at Hiring Success 17.
Lee Ann Prescott
Matt Gillespie